The Internet and its ever-increasing use, by a rapidly growing number of users, has created ever-increasing demands on data networks that carry everything from Internet e-mail messages to web pages to even voice traffic. The data networks that comprise the Internet are required to carry greater amounts of data, faster and faster. As a result, the data switches from which the networks are assembled are becoming increasingly complex and expensive.
Internet protocol (IP) data networks now routinely carry data at rates that are well over 1 gigabit per second. Switching equipment that is fast enough to handle such data needs to be able to decode, among other things, address information embedded within an IP data packet and then re-route packets to the appropriate destination. In managing the growth of data networks that carry high-speed data, a switching system that is able to switch high-speed data at relatively low cost would provide a significant advantage to network service providers, in part, by providing them with the equipment to maintain service levels albeit at a relatively low cost.